Old 8 core Vs. new iMac

[Douglas Underdahl]

Hey all

I am thinking that I need to get a dedicated Final Cut Pro 7 computer. I am using an old Macbook Pro that transcodes to ProRes at about 1-2 fps, and it's driving me nuts.

Now I used Premiere for a long time before going Apple, but instead of jumping back, I'm thinking that I'd like to stay with FCP7 and get either a 8 core Mac Pro from 2008 or 2009, but then again, maybe a brand new 4 core iMac with Thunderbolt and new graphics card would be better. Both solutions seem to cost about the same, which is around $1500.

Any experts out there have advice for me? It would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Douglas Underdahl

[Matt Gottshalk]

If you are doing a lot of Red editing, I'd seriously consider coming over to CS6.

It is sweet.

Also, try to get a prior edition Mac Pro and pop in a decent Nvidia card.

You wil be very happy.

[Jeff Kilgroe]

Go back to Premiere. FCP7 is EOL and locked into single-threaded 32bit limbo. You will actually need a much more powerful computer to make FCP7 sing compared to Premiere CS6. Seriously. Premiere makes way better use of the hardware in your system.

The current iMac was updated about a year ago, but I don't think we'll see a new one just yet -- I think they're a few months away still, possibly early next year, I'm betting Apple is doing a re-design and incorporating a new display -- probably 3840x2160 resolution. That said, the current iMac is a great system! However it doesn't have a GPU that can accelerate certain tasks in the Adobe software. Adobe CS6 still runs great on the iMac, but not stellar.

The $1500 budget is kinda difficult to work with. You can build a nice quad-core PC for that or a 6-core if you don't need to buy a monitor with it. In that budget range, you won't get the i7 based iMac, which you really do need to make this work its best.

And older Mac Pro may be a good option too. In your price range, you're looking at a 2008 model 8-core or possibly a 2009 quad-core. I would not recommend getting a single CPU Mac Pro as it makes a huge compromise on the memory performance.


How old is your Macbook Pro? I jumped back to Premiere with CS4, using a 2006 15" Macbook Pro 2.33GHz Core2 Duo with 2GB RAM and I could edit natively with no transcoding in Premiere. I cut two short films, a couple commercials and at least a dozen short corporate spots (all shot on RED One) with that system and an eSATA 2-HDD RAID from CalDigit. That system was awesome and I used it until it died in early 2010 -- I got over 3 years of hard use out of it.

[Douglas Underdahl]

I have a 17" Macbook Pro from, I think, 2006 2.16 Ghz Core Duo with 2 GB of ram. I could check it but it won't boot! Did all the hold down the keys thing to see if I could get it to boot and it won't.

I liked Premiere, just had a lot of trouble with it crashing and having to jump through hoops but that was on an ancient system from 2000 or 1999. I liked it when I went to Final Cut which was what everyone was using and the hardware was reliable. But now I'm hearing the drum beating, and the natives are wispering about Premiere, so . . .

[Peter Osinski]

look bro, I'm not going to hijack your thread with a mac vs pc debate and i hope no one else does, there are plenty of threads with that topic already...

that being said, go to www.originpc.com choose the millenium edition and put in the best processor you can afford and maybe a 90GB SSD. You can add more RAM later but if you do anything with after effects I suggest putting at least 16GB into it.om

You can keep it at around 1500 if youd like but if I were you I'd see if I can stretch that to $2000. I built a custom PC and there was a lot of trial and error as there is not a lot of quality control in PC components these days. If I could go back and do it again I would get one from these people and you will just know it will work. This way you don't have to worry about throwing things out of whack when you upgrade your system later.

Get adobe cs6. You will never ever look back. Seriously. I have jobs where I am editing FCP 7 on my clients super Mac Pro towers and the performance is nothing like what I have at home.

simple. cheap. fast.

[Eric Santiago]

Go with your budget.
Id get a new iMac due TB only.
We were running 2006 Mac Pro with Avid up to 5.5.x
But with TB I personally would opt for the iMac.
If you're not up to moving towards PCs, your choice this year is slim.

[Andrew PC Smith]

I've got a loaded 2008, 2.8ghz, 8-core, 16GB ram, 3TB with an Esata card for sale if anyone is interested. $1800 + Shipping. PM me.

[James McLellan]

At our school we were working with imac core 2 duos and i3's on Premiere pro 5.5 without any problems using the 30 day trial. All are 4GB ram. Played 4k at 1/8 res smooth. Looks like we are officially switching to Premiere pro cs6 in September. Only thing is we downloaded that trial and are having all types of trouble with it. The core 2 duos won't play anything. I'm hoping this is something that will get patched. Bit concerning though.

Just giving you an alternate perspective Doug. Depending on your workflow you may be able to get away with something less than the most expensive thing out there.

[Peter Osinski]

there's nothing to be 'up for'

for 1500 you can get a new, upgradeable, and powerful workstation.
jello

a message to the OP

an imac could work for you, but honestly...would you prefer something that just barely works? If there was a brand new mac pro, it was in your price range, and FCPX was awesome I'd say go for that. But it's out of your price range and it doesnt exist.

the PC gaming industry has made it so there is a mass market for high performance custom PC's and therefore better prices due to quantities. OriginPC is just one example, I'm sure there are more companies like that. You can get a turn key workstation for $1500 easy.

send a message to Tom Lowe. He's been very vocal about his adobe/pc/red experience

[Mark Toia]

My hooned up i7 laptop eats my 8 core for breakfast ! Sad day...